 Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 1:  To set myself off for the start of the project which was to create a music magazine, I analysed other music magazines of the same genre I planned to have my magazine based on. My analysis of these existing music magazines was to see how the magazines attracted its targeted audience through its conventions and forms. My media product, my music magazine, presents conventions and forms of a magazine and the analysis of existing real music magazines was beneficial to making my product look professional.

The masthead used on my product is one convention I used; I made sure my masthead distinguished from other real music magazines so it didn’t look like an imitation or copy. I downloaded and used a font from the website “Dafont.com” under the category sans serif which I decided to download from. The font used for the masthead was chosen as I wanted to keep the magazine modernised and to attract the target audience.

My intention of the selling line used “Click*Flash* First Ever Photo Issue” placed at the top of the masthead was to interest the audience and to encourage them to read on and to also help the promotion of the magazine as that is what magazine selling lines are to do. It also gives the reader an insight on what the magazine is about. Selling lines are often used by magazines and I felt that using one would help follow the conventions of a magazine.

 Another convention used was the cover lines which is a convention recognisable to all magazines, and the cover lines are of artists that are to be presented in the magazine which will help to engage the audience in. I also downloaded font from the same website as my masthead and made sure the font was consistent to all the other cover lines except for the main cover line which was a completely different type of font so it could stand out from the rest and also attract the audience as it is about an R&B artist MJ Browning coming back again “ She’s Back”.  The cover lines are placed vertically on the right and left sides and the main cover line on the left of the main front page image. The cover lines are placed the way they are and spaced out equally as I wanted the front cover to not look condensed but neat.

As I wanted to take advantage of the analysis of real magazines done before starting off my music magazine, I made sure I took into mind that magazines usually have a barcode which I placed at the bottom right of the front cover and also placed a price on top of it.

The image used on the front cover is medium long shot as I wanted the audience to feel as if the artist is communicating with them through her eyes and her NVC, her composition also attracts the audience as it is sophisticated and sexy looking and her costume suits the genre of music and is also part of the audiences attraction as it contrasts well with the colour scheme of the magazine front cover. The lighting of the image is high keyed which keeps the audience focus on her which is the aim of the camera position.

The contents page is another convention followed by the conventions and forms of other real magazines.